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Human brain atlas debuts

allen1.jpgA genetic and anatomic ‘atlas’ of the human brain was officially released yesterday by the research institute bankrolled by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. The $55 million project, sponsored by the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle, Washington, charts gene expression patterns across 1,000 locations in the brains of 2 people.

Those 100 million data points will serve as a useful resource for scientists studying mental illness, drug addiction and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Allen Institute CEO Allan Jones said in a press release. The atlas is available to scientists and the public at www.brain-map.org.

The human brain atlas follows on a mouse brain atlas and a mouse spinal cord. The institute is also a partner in other projects, including a rhesus macaque brain atlas and developing human brain atlas.

However, the institute’s new science chief Christof Koch told Nature last month that it will soon begin an ambitious new project to chart the neural activity underlying certain behaviours in rodents.

Image courtesy Allen Institute for Brain Science

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